Monthly Archives: September 2009

What kind of intelligence does a leader need to succeed?

September 22, 2009 – 1:22 am

Back in 1995 I read a book called Emotional Intelligence (Bantam), by Daniel Goleman. I have to admit that I really did not understand a heck of a lot of what he was talking about. You see, Emotional Intelligence was a new phenomenon. I had never really heard of it as a studied discipline. I was very familiar with IQ, high levels of technical knowledge, and the various descriptions associated with great leaders. Emotional Intelligence, No way I said. This past week, while finishing a project at Harvard for one of my management classes, i had come across the same book again.I will shamefully admit that i could not put it down.  

Goleman found that while the qualities traditionally associated with leadership-such as intelligence, toughness, determination, and vision-are required for success, they are insufficient.  This made me think of how Emotional Intelligence (let’s call it EI for short) operates and its relationship with effective performance. Happily, as I read the book once more, I realized we had covered several of those answers in the prior posts of this blog.  Tangible, quantifiable criteria, such as profitability, employee turnover, assessments, were used to differentiate the star performers at senior levels within their organizations from the average ones. Interviews and tests were conducted, and capabilities were compared. The results were as suspected. Intellect was a driver of outstanding performance. The top performers also possessed cognitive skills such as big picture thinking and long term vision. Equally satisfying to me, it was also concluded that, differences in technical skills among leaders, were of negligible importance.

As such, we will now continue with our series regarding the characterisitcs of great leaders, how to identify them, and work with them. This is called managing from all levels- The Stratosphere or the water cooler.

At 30,000 feet, you can see the total picture of your business, your industry, and maybe even the economy. You can detect interesting patterns that might create opportunities for your business — imperative to stay ahead of the game.

But if your thinking is always in the stratosphere, you might miss important details. You also have to be incisive, drilling to the specifics.

Otherwise your bold goals might be completely unrealistic; you won’t be able to pinpoint the priorities for your group, and you won’t know if your grand plans are being executed.

Also, those details have to be the right ones. Of all the observations you make, all the numbers your business generates, and all the sources of information available to you, you have to make a judgment about which ones really matter.

Patterns of Thinking

In business, how you think is just as important as what you think.

The ability to think at multiple altitudes, from 30,000 feet to 50 feet, is a distinct advantage in exercising your leadership know-how. But there are at least two other ways of thinking that are equally potent.

• Reframing

Reframing is being able to change your vantage point, to look at a phenomenon or problem from a very different perspective. It’s how leaders redefine their market and create new growth trajectories – MS going from competing in OS to competing in SEO.

You can use reframing to get team members to focus on a common goal rather than on their individual interests.

I once worked for a CEO of a hospitality holding company. He wanted to dig into the details of the business, so he went to work as a street cleaner. At that level, he noticed something he didn’t like: The hard-working janitorial staff viewed customers as the enemy who stood in the way of their mission to keep the parks and parking lots clean.

So he reframed their mission from cleanliness and safety to “giving customers the greatest day of their life.” Seeing their roles in a different light gave the staff a more positive attitude toward customers and paved the way for a better customer experience.

• Connecting the dots

Linear, analytic thinking is useful and important, but sometimes you have to take mental leaps in order to make sense of incomplete or seemingly unrelated pieces of information. You have to go beyond the charts and graphs and use imagination to connect the dots.

This mental process can be unconscious. If you ponder a problem for days and suddenly wake up one morning with a clear answer, your unconscious mind has done the work of connecting the dots. It appears to be intuitive.

Think how important connecting the dots is in a business meeting. As the dialogue flows among people, you as the leader should try to make connections between the ideas as they spontaneously arise. The better you get at this, the more productive the discussion will be as you synthesize the ideas rather than choosing among them

Anyone competing in the media or software development industry — or any fast-changing industry, for that matter — has to be able to make connections even as the dots themselves change.

By lotfi saibi | Posted in Business and Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)

Leaders and their relationships with employees

September 5, 2009 – 12:45 am

The last couple of posts covered Superficial Leadership and The True Purpose of a Leader. Today we tackle the Leader’s relationship with his or her team. As a leader, do you spend as much time with your employees as you do with your business’ numbers? Is it quality time that shows sincere interest in them as human beings? And would they agree?

Or do you subconsciously believe that having an ongoing personal connection with employees is a waste of time? Maybe you rationalize your detachment by saying it’s your personal style to assign goals, provide resources, and let people loose.

An Atmosphere for Success

When I ask these simple questions of executives who want to build their organizational capability, they often become pensive. They begin to ponder what everyone knows — that most professionals want to do the best job they can, but a leader who creates the right ambiance and kindles the fire in people gets that extra something that drives organizations to new heights.

It’s a matter of attitudes, feelings and emotions that makes work enjoyable and ignites people’s energy to do more than they thought they could. Great leaders understand the numbers, but they also touch people’s hearts.

To get people fully engaged, you have to pay attention to them and make a personal connection with them. There are lots of different approaches to doing so, but here are some specific ways to improve how you lead people:

1. Spend time and listen.

There’s no substitute for personal interaction. Even the most competent, motivated professionals can lose focus, energy, and commitment when their interaction with the boss dwindles. Some people will assume others have your ear and feel less important. Others will simply feel overlooked and underappreciated.

You have to make the time to converse with people in person, by phone, through email, at lunch, or through periodic sit-downs one on one. Asking how a person’s current challenge is going and whether there’s anything you can do to help shows you care about his success.

An email following up on a formal or informal discussion reminds the person that she’s on your radar screen. Even a quick exchange in the hallway or elevator is a chance to show interest.

Listening is more important than talking. That’s how you find out what the organization is really wrestling with and therefore how execution is going. You’ll also learn how people tackle problems, and therefore how their minds work and what their talents are — all important in building a first-class organization.

But listening goes deeper. People feel different when they know they’ve been heard and that their input is making a difference. Access to you and your sincere interest are pivotal to their emotional connection with their work.

2. Help people see why their work is important.

It’s hard to feel engaged when you’re working in a vacuum. You can help people see their individual contribution as part of a bigger picture.

For example, a middle manager charged with designing an efficient flow of goods from China to a location in the middle of Texas can get totally immersed in the complexities of balancing cost, time, speed, and insurance risks.

As her boss, you can provide the broader context that shows how critical that work is to the company’s overall picture of streamlining the supply chain and conserving cash to make the company more competitive. When people see how their project, their job, and their goals fit into a higher purpose, they know their contribution matters.

3. Give people honest feedback.

It’s a human phenomenon: When someone is doing really well and you reinforce it with positive feedback, good performance becomes even better. People need to be seen and recognized — and not just once a year in a typically brief performance review. They need to hear what you think of their work often, with candor.

Maybe you think the high performers know they’re doing well, or should know because you pay them well. Don’t count on it.

When people aren’t meeting expectations, let them know that, too, so that they have a chance to improve. Don’t let your disappointments build and fester. If you talk to people regularly there’ll be no surprises.

4. Take an interest in people’s careers.

People will be all the more committed to their work when they know you’re the kind of leader who is truly interested in their success. Look for what people are naturally good at and work with them to find ways that they can leverage their talents. This applies to your underperformers as well as your superstars.

Talk about what they want to do, and what you can imagine them doing. Brainstorm possibilities, even if those possibilities are outside your span of control. And let your best people go to other jobs, other departments, even other organizations if that’s where the opportunity lies.

I’ve known many a retired leader who beams with pride at the success of leaders he helped nurture. And even decades later, those other leaders are deeply grateful to the person who helped them grow. Such emotional connections make life more meaningful.

5. Take an interest in the person beyond the job.

Not every conversation should be about work. People have lives outside of work; indeed, some people are very different outside of their jobs. People will know you care about them if you take time to learn what’s important in their lives.

The Full Measure of Leadership

Sure, you can hire a motivational speaker to fire up the troops. But the effect will last 15 minutes. If you really want to get your employees fully engaged in their work, you must be fully engaged with them. It’s you who makes the difference. It’s in your daily behavior, and it’s your energy that creates energy in others. It’s that simple.

Caring about people and wanting to draw the best out of them is something you can’t fake. If you’re self-centered and disinterested in others, leadership is not your calling. People know the difference. They’ll gravitate toward leaders whose concern is sincere.

Put your beliefs into action. Treat people like human beings with full lives, personal ambitions, and both the desire and the right to be valued and heard. Is it different from what you see around you? Maybe so, but that’s what leadership is all about.

 Disclaimer: author and source unknown.

By lotfi saibi | Posted in Business and Politics | Tagged , , | Comments (1)